Government gives 20 hours free ECE so kids can sit in front of the TV

The Government's 20 hour free ECE policy is supposed to be about childhood education. But not all caregivers provide this childhood education, and some services provided are no different to a baby sitting service.

I know of one provider whose caregivers charge a top up fee for kids to sit and watch videos, take the kids to playgroup - and when they are tired, sleep. In other words, the unregistered caregivers are doing tasks which have nothing to do with the Ministry of Education, and the fact that it is "20 hours free" means, for wealthier families, the Government pays most of it instead of parents.

So you can see that the purpose of 20 hours free is not education of children, it is getting mothers back to work.